Visual impairment in Nordic children

Abstract

A Nordic study group of ophthalmologists, NORDSYN, has compiled registers in Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Norway of 2527 visually impaired children aged 0-17 years. This paper is concerned with the sex-distribution in the registers and has documented a statistically significant excess of males in two of the registers (Denmark and Finland). The dominance of males seems to be related to two main conditions: 1. Genetic factors. 2. Perinatal factors. The genetic factors are mainly concerned with X-linked inheritance. The fact that perinatal influences involve visual impairment in males more than in females is difficult to account for. It may be conjectured, that the basis for perinatal visual damage is determined by unknown prenatal, possibly genetic, factors.

A novel method of notification to profile childhood visual impairment in Scotland to meet the needs of children with visual impairment

“…Several adult studies have, however, highlighted the incompleteness of the official blind and partial sight register (Bunce et al, 1998;Evans and Wormald, 1993;Robinson et al, 1994;Wormald and Evans, 1994). This is in contrast to Scandinavia where a collaborative effort over the past several decades has led to an extensive literature on the epidemiology of childhood visual impairment, offering useful information to health, education and social service planners Riise et al, 1992a;Riise et al, 1992b;Rosenberg et al, 1992;Rudanko et al, 1993).…”